Dear X (2025)

I expected a better ending

This drama is good, but the beginning set up high expectations. I love the fact that they gave us an evil female lead since that is quite rare to see. However, I expected a better ending. Since I was spoiled by the webtoon version, I expected them to follow it and give us a better story.

SPOILER! Jae Oh’s death was unnecessary. He was my favorite character, and I sort of expected him to protect Ah Jin and save her in another way instead of sacrificing himself. They made his death meaningless because, after all, it didn’t help her at all.

Jae Oh would literally burn the world for her, and he put his life at risk with the thought that it would save her. I thought he would come up with a smarter plan to save her career.

But at least I discovered what my ideal type is. (Sorry, I just had to add that!) Jae Oh was so damn fine, and I loved the way he treated Ah Jin. I wanted him to stay with her and take care of her after she was exposed, just like in the webtoon.

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PURE MADNESS!!!

I understand why many viewers felt disappointed with the ending. At this point, the drama could have followed the webtoon more closely, especially since its ending, though still sad, felt more complete.

That said, I genuinely enjoyed this drama. It’s one of the rare shows where I didn’t skip a single scene. From start to finish, it held my attention.

The early high school episodes were a highlight for me. I actually wish they had lasted longer. Without them, if the story had begun only when Baek Ah Jin became a celebrity, her character would have seemed like just another fame-obsessed star willing to do anything to rise to the top. But that’s not who she is. Those early episodes showed the roots of her trauma, and because of that, I could empathize with her, and I pitied her, even if I didn’t agree with her choices at all.

And it wasn’t just her. Every character in this drama had their own brand of madness. Let’s be honest: the world Baek Ah Jin lived in was far from sane, and the people around her were just as chaotic in their own ways! Everyone was mad in their own way!

Despite all this, I admired the two male leads. Their devotion to the female lead was unwavering, and they were willing to do anything to support her. Still, I can’t say I condone all their actions, especially Jun Seo’s behavior toward the end, which was absolutely wild (although that's not what happened in the webtoon).

Overall, I’m really satisfied with this drama. I usually gravitate toward lighthearted romantic comedies filled with cute fluffy moments between the leads, and this show was the complete opposite. Yet I found myself appreciating it deeply, and I’d definitely recommend it if you’re looking for something different.

I’m just giving it fewer points for rewatch value. Because of its dark themes and how emotionally heavy it is, I feel that watching it once is more than enough.

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The mighty rise, the ruthless middle and the underwhelming fall !

This is one of those dramas that walks into your life, kicks the door open with an insane amount of flair and then tests every bit of patience you have in you. Once in a while, in drama land, we meet characters like Ah Jin, the femme fatale. What frustrated me here was that her deranged, iconic journey was thrilling to watch, yet the downfall she faced barely scratched the surface of what she deserved.

Let's start with Ah Jin. She has razor-sharp intelligence, survival instincts honed by manipulation and borderline cruelty and a personality carved out of neglect and trashy parenting. The drama tells us from the start that she doesn't have or feel emotions from the very first scene when little Ah Jin climbs that staircase in that rain soaked scene. Every episode peeled a layer of her and every layer was worse and shocking than the last.
I made my peace that she isn't your typical damsel in distress FL but she is the reason everyone else is distressed and I am weirdly okay with that. I have issues with how the writing went in the second half. They wanted her to be everything. From a tragic figure to a ruthless mastermind and also a victim but a perpetrator too.

I agree that all the adults in her life failed her by a big margin, and her dad had it coming, and she was able to get my narrative sympathy because of that, until there weren't outsiders involved who had nothing to do with her trauma. Acknowledging her backstory doesn't make her actions neutral. Her actions were just a trauma response or self-defence. She manipulates, calculates and then strikes. Indifference to one's emotions doesn't make anyone morally superior to malice. They both are equally dangerous.

The real flaw wasn’t that she lacked guilt or remorse because we are shown she is foreign to those emotions but the fact that even story never created an atmosphere where accountability truly existed was a bummer. No one I repeat no one...not the adults or not the system or not even the narrative tone, stepped up to challenge her choices. That missing pressure made the entire world around her feel oddly weightless and very convenient. It took the edge off for me.

Coming to the second half, where I was waiting for her downfall, damn it was disappointing. When it was her turn to reap what she sowed, I felt the universe was biased because the writing acted like society was the one being unreasonable. Initially, the flag of methodical psychotic chaos waved right over her head, and suddenly everyone bends itself into pretzels to validate her perspective?
I can go on and on about her writing 100 when she got 10, excluding her father, but moving on...

Ah Jin's biggest victims were Jae Oh and Jun Seo, the Mercury and Venus orbiting her blazing sun. A perfect example of how different kinds of brokennes attract the same sun.
Jun Seo was someone who mistakenly misunderstood devotion as the purpose of his life and destruction as destiny. We get to see his moments of conflict, where we know who Ah Jin is and what she is capable of but chooses to be blind when it comes to her. I am not surprised by his character arc in the latter half as I predicted it.
Out of all her pieces, Jae Oh's dedication was the only one whose kindness feels unmanufactured. He had a soft side to him and I feel he was one of the two who brought Ah Jin's soft side out even though it was for a second or maybe I over-analysed the scene.

Ah Jin's greatest strength is how well she knows people around her and her weakness is that she doesn't value them a bit. I do feel a little sad for the boys but it wasn't something that was unexpected. They knew it! We knew it!
Also, this was Ah Jin's world and somehow everyone just accommodated according to her wishes and plans. Sometimes by how she hatches a plan and manipulated them and sometimes because it had to that way because writing.

That said, the performance by everyone was outstanding. Especially Kim Yoo Jung. That dead-eyed stare with that smile is iconic! The shift between vulnerability and menace was done so consistently well. The child actor who played Ah-Jin was another gem. Kim Young Dae as Jun Seo was another hit. His cold demeanour and that nonchalance did the work here. Kim Do Hoon as Jae Oh was a fitting find too. We had some star-studded guest performances too.

The cinematography and production just elevated the drama. The shots were intentional and very poetically presented. Though the editing in the later half seemed a bit choppy but it is very ignorable. Money was spent on sets and costumes and it showed.

Overall, while the first half charmed me left and right, the second half was underwhelming or maybe I had a different kind of expectations. The ending didn't sit right with me plus the lack of narrative justice disappointed me.
Still, it was one of a kind ride. Messy, chaotic and addictive to an extent.
Will I recommend it? Depends on if you enjoy characters like Ah Jin and don't mind heavy dramas.

Everything said, I have to acknowledge that every character here, especially Ah Jin is open to multiple interpretations and maybe all of them are neither black nor white. I can see why someone would rate this drama high but also low ratings are as justified as the high ones.

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Dear X: Fun Start, Wtf Ending

Dear X starts off fun and chaotic, with a strong trio of characters that make the story engaging and enjoyable. For most of the drama, I kept my rating between 8 and 8.5 because the characters were well-written and the interactions kept the energy alive, even when some plot points didn’t fully make sense. However, around episodes 9 and 10, the story began to drift. The pacing felt uneven, and the plot introduced ideas that weren’t fully developed. Then, the final episodes completely change the tone. The deaths of the two male leads were abrupt and lacked narrative weight, while the female lead’s survival left no real closure. The ending feels open, confusing, and disconnected from the buildup, leaving me unsure of the intended message. Despite the messy ending, I still enjoyed much of the drama, especially the character dynamics and early episodes.

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Starts good, then the plot becomes a mess.

I did not read the webtoon, so this review is based solely on the drama.

TL;DR: the first 8 episodes make overall sense; the last 4 don’t, and they completely ruin the entire show.

They feel like a different drama was scotch-taped onto the original just to force extra tension into a story that already had plenty. Almost as if the writers thought: “We have the potential to improve the webtoon… so let’s throw that away and do something that has nothing to do with what we built so far.”

Episodes 1–8 were flawed but coherent. Up until episode 8, Baek Ah-Jin is still a despicable character, but the drama clearly shows signs of a redemption arc for her, while at the same time she has Yoon Joon-Soo as her moral compass (and feels like her only real affection, deep down), and Kim Jae-Oh who silently loves her and stays by her side.

But then, in episodes 9–12, everything falls apart.

Episode 9 introduces a brand-new character out of nowhere. I genuinely hoped he’d have a real narrative justification —someone wronged by Ah-Jin in the past, or connected to her dad... But no. He's one-dimensional and his only motivation is essentially: “I’m an evil psychopath and I enjoy driving my wives crazy.” That’s it.

Ah-Jin marries him just to keep her status. He drugs her. Then, to get rid of him, she pushes Jae-Oh into willingly getting himself killed by her husband’s gang and recording the whole scene just to be able to blackmail her husband. I hoped it was a ruse… but no. Jae-Oh is really dead.

Joon-Soo is devastated and begs her to stop but she shows no remorse whatsoever for Jae-Oh’s death (which is strange, considering that earlier in the drama she showed some emotional impact after her ex-boyfriend killed himself after she dumped him... but zero for Jae-Oh?).

Joon-Soo finally manages to stop her by trying not only to free her from her husband but also to break her cycle of revenge and self-destruction that was consuming her and everything around her... and then, out of nowhere, he drives off a cliff with her in the car. They both survive… and she leaves him there to die. This is supposed to be the only person she ever loved. And she abandons him, so... farewell, redemption arc! The end.

Narratively, none of this makes sense

- Ah-Jin’s character development is erased. Why build a redemption arc for 8 episodes only to annul it in the final four?

- Joon-Soo’s arc collapses. After spending the entire drama trying to get his life back but also saving her from her own destructive spiral (and from her husband as well), he suddenly does something completely out of character like driving off a cliff like there was no other choice?

- Poor Kim Jae-Oh’s purpose becomes tragic and pointless. Was his entire role just to sacrifice himself because he was emotionally bound to her?

- Moon Do Hyuk’s addition is baffling. Introducing a major antagonist in episode 9 of a 12-episode show (!), with zero build-up, makes those episodes feel like a completely different series.

- The chemistry between Ah-Jin and Joon-Soo goes nowhere. All that tension, affection and attraction… for what? For her to walk away while he’s barely alive in a wrecked car?

- The open ending feels meaningless. Unless they’re hoping for a second season (which is odd after ruining every character and killing off one -or maybe two- leads), the ending makes absolutely no sense, especially with the genre shift from melodramatic thriller to a very cheap soap-opera.

The only redeeming element is the acting.
Kim Yoo-Jung is phenomenal, easily the standout of the cast, and her chemistry with Kim Young-Dae is genuinely compelling. He delivers a nice performance in a role I didn’t expect from him.

Final verdict
From a narrative standpoint, the show is a mess.
Episodes 1–8 are acceptable, sometimes even engaging.
Episodes 9–12 are incoherent, rushed, and extremely disappointing. And because of that, it loses many stars.

Bummer.

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treat all the children kindly do not abused them love them as much you can.

if you hate this drama it mean you didn't understood what message they give us. you must have some kind of understand of society to like this kind of series. we are not living in a fairytale. all are different.

be kind to everyone do not hurt other with your words.all the main characters have trauma in their childhood because of their parents.

in our life have good and bad person.some people show as good personality to the world but they are wearing mask to hide their real character.sometimes evill person person win .
watch this drama.you can feel the pain.

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Is the Devil as Evil as She Is Painted?

A glamorous and flashy journey full of tragedy, pity, and pure self-destruction.

Baek Ah Jin is called a monster by those around her - a devil in disguise who creates a world where others end up destroyed and feeling like trash. And sure, that's true to some extent, but the drama gives us something much deeper.

You see why she acts the way she does and what shaped her into who she is. Throughout the drama, I felt constantly conflicted. Sometimes I was rooting for her because of how much she suffered, and even when she finally managed to start living a relatively peaceful life, she still kept getting attacked by others. Sometimes I felt bad for the people who had to deal with her, because she really did make their lives miserable when they absolutely didn't deserve it. And sometimes... I just wanted to see her downfall - a really impactful and spectacular one.

It's not that she enjoys hurting others - she just doesn't want to be the one who gets hurt. Her actions can seem impulsive or not very smart, but that actually fits her character perfectly. She takes what she needs from others without hesitation. If she sees someone who can help her get ahead, she'll use them. And if something goes wrong for that person, it might seem like she feels sorry - but really, she's just frustrated she lost someone useful to her. Ah Jin manipulates everyone around her, and us viewers as well.

What I really appreciate is that, in my opinion, the drama never tries to force you to either sympathize with Ah Jin or hate her. It just shows her life, all its ugliness, and lets the viewer decide. That's why this drama will always be polarizing. Not everyone will enjoy following a character who just keeps spiraling deeper and deeper into her own madness.

We also see how Ah Jin affects everyone around her. Yun Jun Seo and Kim Jae Oh are always there for her, but their approaches couldn't be more different. I really liked that dynamic - both want to help her, both want her to be happy, but neither truly understands what "happiness" even means to someone who was never meant to have it in the first place.

I was honestly surprised at first by how slow-paced this drama was. The first episodes don't give that impression, but later on you can definitely feel it - and I ended up liking it. I enjoy when a story just unfolds naturally and doesn't rush anywhere. Whenever I see Lee Eung Bok listed as a director, I kind of expect slower pacing, melodrama, and lots of random character encounters - but somehow he always makes it work. And let's be real - whenever Ah Jin was on screen, whether she ran into someone she'd ruined or a completely new person, it was always interesting to see what would happen.

What really made this drama work for me were the directing and the performances. To say Kim Yoo Jung was great would be like saying nothing - she was absolutely mesmerizing. I bought everything she was selling. Her expressions, her voice, the empty, despair-filled look in her eyes - she nailed it all. The whole cast did a really good job, I honestly don't think there was a single weak link. Even though I was initially skeptical about Kim Young Dae, he quickly proved me wrong - he fit his character pretty well.

I loved the directing, even though at times the continuity of some scenes felt a bit messy. It didn't bother me much, but I think it's worth mentioning in case there was actually more of it and I just didn't catch it. The soundtrack had some really great tracks and atmospheric background music, and some shots were to die for. I especially loved the close-ups of Kim Yoo Jung's face - there were some expressions we haven't really had the chance to see from her before.

Overall, it was far from perfect, but personally I had such a great time that listing all its flaws would just feel like nitpicking - very few dramas this year pulled me into their world the way Dear X did. I kept thinking about it and genuinely looked forward to every new episode. I feel like I didn't even write half of what I want to say about this drama. It was an extremely interesting character study of a truly tragic person - the kind of story that will leave some viewers completely mesmerized and others completely turned off. Some will love it, and some won't.

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Dear X, Why Was That Ending Like That?

So this drama was… interesting. I went in blind, fully unprepared for the chaos I was about to witness. The first few episodes had me hooked. For like 3–4 episodes, I was actually rooting for A-Jin. I didn’t like her, but I understood her. Her abuse made her sympathetic, and I thought the show would maybe explore healing or consequences.

LOL. Nope.

The more she did, the more obvious it became that she was only getting worse, not better. By the midpoint I was counting down to her downfall. There’s been debate over sociopath vs psychopath, but honestly she’s a messy blend. (Neither is even a formal diagnosis, but she clearly has ASPD) But that’s not the point. The story is.

And the story… was strong at first. But after episode 7–8? Downhill.

Acting? Amazing.
Music? Very good.
Story? Lacked any actual moral backbone.

SPOILERS from here on out:
A-Jin didn’t get what she deserved. Not even close. Her husband (Moon… something, I can’t remember) escapes just fine. Jae-oh’s death? Completely pointless. It was the saddest moment of the whole drama and it made me hate A-Jin even more because he died literally for nothing. And the ending? The two main villains live. Sure, A-Jin’s image is ruined but she didn’t actually face real satisfying consequences.

Her bullies? Don’t care. They deserved everything.
But the rest? A mess.

And Junseo… I don’t even know where to start. “Let’s die together”?? Sir, be serious. He was my least favorite character. Pathetic, delusional, and enabling A-Jin in the worst way. His mother was awful to him and he still hands her his kidney like a party favor. Why bro??!!! He wasn’t even close to her.

I read the ending of the webtoon only and I have to say it was much more fitting. Petty and bitter, exactly the tone the drama should have stuck with. This “open ending” was just… there. Nothing to think about. A-Jin survives. The husband survives. They’ll probably make it work again. And guess what? She didn’t personally kill anyone so legally… there’s not much they can actually do to her besides public shame and maybe a few years in prison for instigating it.

Her sudden nightmares/memory loss? Random. If she was truly traumatized, this wouldn’t magically start at episode 11. She’s been through worse before. That whole arc felt thrown in last minute. But at least she was starting to act more like a sociopath than a psychopath so that was one thing. I just wish if they wanted to go this route, they would've started much sooner, especially after what happened with her-- now i throw this word loosly here-- "father".

And WHAT was that nonsense with letting the school bully stay with her in her house? Why didn’t she let the police get her? I think i missed something but that made zero sense. it was just like she was there so something can just happen.

By the end, the drama basically said:
“Everyone loves A-Jin! Everyone will die for her! Everyone she ruins will forgive her! Coincidence solves everything! Morality whomst??”

Junoh’s death was the only truly pitiful tragedy. And a useless one because A-jin never runied the husband.
Junseo was a just... ughh... useless ...
A-Jin never truly answered for anything.
The final 15 mins of the last episode left me like (ㆆ_ㆆ)

But despite everything… it was entertaining. The aesthetics, the acting, the vibes were strong. I would've loved it if they made it a showdown between the psychopath husband and the sociopath FML but no they decided to go the boring route... oh well.

Do I recommend it?
ʸᵉˢ… but with a warning:
You’re watching a story that’s not really realistic, no moral message, not satisfying but it is ₘₑₕ entertaining.

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Lost potential

Despite a great cast and interesting character development, the series leads nowhere. We begin with her school days, which are brutally interrupted, and we're transported to the real world, where our heroine is a celebrity. And that's where the entire storyline falls apart. We supposedly have men devoted to her, but the interactions between them are limited. We supposedly have a female protagonist with a well-developed personality, but she doesn't really do anything interesting for several episodes. Her obsession with achieving a high social position doesn't quite mesh with her story. Our greatest regret is that the guy who "helped" her ended up in prison. One scene of his gaze in prison suggests revenge. The script is disappointing, as the guy suddenly declares he forgives her, which is laughable. 0 love stories. The series' wasted potential.

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Here lies Dear X: Born Brilliant, Died Confused.

I’m going to be honest right from the start: Dear X is a drama that made me fall in love, get betrayed, and then sit alone in the ruins wondering how something so brilliant could implode so fast. If I could freeze this drama at episode 5, I’d be singing songs of its greatness from rooftops. But since we have to consider the full package, here’s my eulogy for a drama that could’ve been legendary, but ultimately forgot its own identity.

Let me start with the praise, because the one thing I will always give this drama is Kim Yoo-jung’s performance. She was outrageous in the best way. Truly phenomenal. She didn’t just play Baek Ah-jin, she inhabited her like she was slipping in and out of different skins. The way she could shift from a wounded girl to a calculating strategist to someone who looked you dead in the eyes with nothing but ice behind them? That was masterclass level. She made emotional masking look like a finely tuned instrument. Even when the script was disintegrating in later episodes, KYJ kept delivering like she didn’t get the memo that the writing team had gone on vacation. If there’s anything I will remember fondly from this drama, it’s her work.

And honestly, those first five episodes were some of the best early-arc sociopathic drama writing I’ve seen in a long time. Tight. Sharp. Precise. The tone was controlled, the character motivations were clear, and Ah-jin’s world was built with this fascinating blend of trauma-driven instincts and strategic manipulation. I loved watching her. I loved studying her. She was a beautifully crafted paradox , someone who looked like a monster but was really just a broken girl surviving with the only tools she had left. If the drama had kept its momentum, if it had trusted the spine it built in those early hours, we could’ve easily been talking about one of the best psychological thrillers of the year.

But then came episode 6, where the show basically walked out of its own body and said, “What if we try being… a different genre?” And from that point on, it felt like the drama lost its confidence. Like it suddenly became terrified of its own brilliance and started backpedaling into blandness. Instead of escalating Ah-jin’s complexity, the show deflated her. Instead of sharpening the stakes, it softened everything into mush. Episodes 6 and 7 were such a nosedive that I almost couldn’t believe it. The drama suddenly didn’t know what story it wanted to tell, survival, revenge, fame, romance, comedy? It tried to juggle everything, dropped everything, and then acted like nothing happened.

Let’s talk about that fake romance arc. My god. It was already flimsy as an idea, but they dragged it out so long that I started aging in real-time. It wasn’t even fun, or spicy, or necessary. It just… sat there. A limp fish of a plotline that drained all the tension out of the show every time it appeared. And worse, it completely cheapened Ah-jin. This character who was introduced as a tactical, emotionally guarded mastermind suddenly… what? Decides seduction is her new superpower? I’m sorry, but that’s not character growth, that’s character confusion. I went from watching someone who played psychological chess to someone who suddenly decided her whole arc was going to be Jessica Rabbit cosplay. The whiplash was real.

Then there’s the marriage arc with the psycho chaebol. I don’t even know what to do with that storyline. It felt like the writers wanted shock value, remembered they forgot to escalate anything for five episodes, and tossed in a new plotline like a last-minute seasoning packet. It was rushed, messy, and honestly beneath the potential the show had. There were moments, tiny glimmers, where I thought, “Oh, maybe they’re getting their soul back.” But nope. It immediately collapsed into nonsense again. It was like watching someone try to revive a plant by watering the plastic pot next to it.

And the ending? Don’t get me started. Absolute garbage. A deus ex machina disguised as plot armor disguised as “meaning.” Suddenly Ah-jin is immortal. Untouchable. Invincible. The laws of narrative gravity don’t apply to her anymore. All tension evaporates because the drama refuses to let consequences land. This isn’t clever writing. This is the storytelling equivalent of shrugging and hoping the audience won’t notice the holes big enough to park a bus.

Then we have the symbolism. Visually beautiful, yes. Symbolically meaningful? Absolutely not. Symbolism only works if the story establishes a visual vocabulary early on and then builds on it consistently. Dear X didn’t do that. Instead, it slapped symbolic imagery onto unrelated scenes in the final stretch and expected us to clap like seals. I’m sorry, but no. That’s not profound. That’s the writers setting the script on fire and pretending the ashes spell poetry. The audience isn’t confused because we “don’t get it.” We’re confused because the drama never taught us the language it suddenly expected us to speak.

So here’s my verdict: Dear X is a tragedy, not in its plot, but in its wasted potential. The first half of this drama is a masterpiece waiting to happen. The second half is a slow-motion collapse that left me emotionally drained in the worst way possible. This is a eulogy for the brilliance we glimpsed but were never allowed to fully have. And while KYJ gave one of her best performances ever, everything around her simply fell apart. By the end, I wasn’t even angry. I was just sad, exhausted, and ready to move on.

If you ever watch Dear X, stop at episode 5. Pretend the rest is fanfiction. Your heart will thank you.

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